So, you have decided you would like to sell private ads on your blog.
Guess what? Just making that decision doesn’t bring advertisers beating down your door.
Sorry.
When you first start selling private ads, you have to do the legwork. Here’s how:
1. Know the company. Just like it irritates you when you get emails from agencies asking to guest post on your blog about topics that make no sense for the kind of blog you write, consider how irritating it would be to a company to have a blogger email them asking for an ad or sponsorship to a conference when the blogger knows nothing about what the company sells.
Do your research. Better yet, already be using that company’s products! Sincerity and integrity go a long way.
2. Know why you want to work with the company. Making a quick buck should never be a part of this equation. Remember that vision/mission statement we talked about? Measure the companies you are looking to work with by this statement. Don’t compromise.
3. Know what you have to offer. If you don’t know what you can offer a company, don’t expect them to know either. You need to know all the different ways you can work with a company and pitch that information to them. For instance, if I know how to run a Twitter Party (which I do), I can pitch to a company that I would be able to promote their product in that specific way. Suppose you have a good following on Facebook. Let the company know that you would use Facebook as a way to get the message across about their site. Be creative, but be honest. Don’t offer what you can’t deliver.
4. Hand them the media kit up front. When I pitch a company, I always go ahead and send the link to my ad page/media kit in the initial email. It offers more of a call to action and an opportunity to get to know Raising Arrows before sending back and easy “No”. We talked media kits yesterday…get to work!
Need a little more help with wording your pitch? Here is my Sponsorship Form Letter – able to be tweaked and used in many different ways. I’d love to hear how it works for you!
